Nicotine-releasing chewing gum applied for the purpose of providing a release of nicotine in a user's mouth over a certain period is well-known. Much effort has in prior art been put into emulating the nicotine release and oral perception of a cigarette when it is smoked by a user, which means that release profiles from nicotine chewing gums have been thoroughly investigated in prior art.
One of these prior art disclosures includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,962 specifically dealing with the problem of simulating the cigarette smoking with respect to the level of nicotine retention in the blood and saliva. According to the disclosure, an initial peak of nicotine level in the blood is obtained more similar to the corresponding absorption of nicotine when smoking a cigarette. The levels reached after a certain time corresponds to conventional nicotine chewing gums.
Another prior art disclosure is U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,222 describing a chewing gum which is claimed to provide improved release of nicotine. This improved release apparently is the result of a bi-phasic release of nicotine in initial and second doses. This document as well as most prior art is focused on how to adjust the release of nicotine from the chewing gum in order to provide plenty of nicotine for possible uptake in the body.
In short, these documents are examples of the prior art, in which focus has always been on how to adjust release of nicotine from the chewing gum; however, not much focus has been on other parameters actually controlling the uptake of nicotine from the oral saliva.
A problem with the prior art is therefore that substantial amounts of the nicotine from prior art nicotine chewing gum may be swallowed by the user and thereby transferred to the stomach whereby only a minor part of the swallowed nicotine can enter the bloodstream of the user.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to improve the utilization of the nicotine from the chewing gum by facilitating an improved actual uptake of nicotine through the mucous membrane of a user.